The Bottom Line: The Missing Element

Editor’s note: The views and opinions expressed below are those
of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of
Sherdog.com, its affiliates and sponsors or its parent company,
Evolve Media.

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To hear Chuck
Liddell, Tito Ortiz and
Oscar De La Hoya tell it, the now confirmed Nov. 24 bout between
Ortiz and Liddell will likely be the biggest career payday for the
two MMA legends. That’s because Ortiz and Liddell are genuine
promotional partners with De La Hoya, getting greater spoils if
their fight is a success while also taking greater risk if the
fight flops. It’s a definite positive for fighters that they are
finally getting dealt into profits more strongly than they have in
the past, and the question now is whether this particular event is
one that will generate the sort of interest its promoters are
expecting. There’s reason to be skeptical on that front.

Much of the analysis regarding Liddell-Ortiz 3 has centered on the
ages of the fighters. Liddell and Ortiz are two of the biggest
names in the history of the sport, but their peaks as fighters came
over a decade ago. It’s understandable that in a fight pitting a
48-year-old Liddell against a 43-year-old Ortiz many are going to
argue that fans simply don’t want to see fighters continue to
compete past a certain age. However, age isn’t ultimately the root
of the problem.

The second biggest fight on the horizon for MMA behind only
Conor
McGregor-Khabib
Nurmagomedov is Daniel
Cormier-Brock
Lesnar. Cormier is rapidly approaching 40 while Lesnar already
passed that milestone. That won’t prevent Cormier-Lesnar from being
a spectacular success on pay-per-view. Likewise, fans gravitated
towards Randy
Couture’s fights after he passed 40 much more than when he was
younger than 40. There have of course been times when fans lost
interest in aging MMA fighters, but there are plenty of examples,
too, of fans not caring or older age working in fighters’
favor.

If the key factor working against Liddell-Ortiz 3 isn’t age, then
what is it? Simply put: stakes. Promoters often forget when using
big stars from the past that there needs to be some way that the
upcoming fight ties into the stars’ overall legacy and thus has
intrinsic meaning. If a fight simply feels like a one-off novelty
where the winner is largely meaningless, it can sometimes still
attract an audience on free television, but it rarely moves numbers
on pay-per-view.

If Chuck Liddell’s return were to come against Jon Jones, as
abhorrent as the fight would be morally, it would still likely
generate a massive amount of mainstream fan interest. That’s
because Liddell would have the opportunity in one night to prove
how he could do against the best of the next generation. The odds
of Liddell winning would be exceedingly low, but if he somehow
pulled it off, it would be arguably the biggest win of his career.
Thus, there would be a sense of importance to the result, no matter
how obvious the outcome. This same principle led to the
overwhelming success of the McGregor-Floyd
Mayweather boxing mismatch.

Liddell and Ortiz don’t seem mismatched at this stage of their
careers. Liddell has beaten Ortiz multiple times, while Ortiz is
now younger, has been much more active and likely has the sturdier
chin. It’s a fair fight to make for those reasons. The problem is
that the result of the fight doesn’t appear to affect the legacy of
either man, for different reasons.

On Liddell’s end, he has the opportunity to beat up Ortiz for the
third time. One gets the impression that Liddell would still jump
at the opportunity to do so at a nursing home in another 40 years;
he enjoys tormenting his longtime rival like Lucy delights at
torturing Charlie Brown. It’s just that Liddell doing so again
wouldn’t tell us anything that hadn’t long ago been established.
Liddell convincingly beat Ortiz in the latter’s prime, and that’s
when the stakes were the highest.

On the other side, Ortiz at least has the opportunity to change the
story. By defeating Liddell, he could avenge two of the key
setbacks in his career; and it would surely offer great
satisfaction given how long observers have been saying Liddell has
his number. The problem for Ortiz is that the excuses for his win
are already baked in. Liddell has been long retired and repeatedly
knocked out. If Ortiz beats Liddell, most will conclude it simply
means Liddell has nothing left. Ortiz will get precious little
credit, and it certainly won’t change the perception of his overall
career.

When they fought for the first time, Ortiz was the big star and
Liddell the former training partner looking to prove he was better.
Liddell’s win was a key moment in their switching positions.
Liddell became the top man by the time the sport exploded in
popularity. When they fought the second time, the title was on the
line and Ortiz was gunning for revenge. Liddell’s win set him up
for future title fights, while Ortiz has largely fought in
special-attraction fights ever since. This third time, there is no
comparable narrative. They’ll get in there and fight one more time
and then basically return to the same positions they were in.

There’s no begrudging Ortiz and Liddell for seeking one more big
payday or for that matter just wanting to compete one more time in
a sport they played instrumental roles in shaping. However, this
fight will not sink or swim based on respect. It needs to intrigue
and to excite. It’s hard to do those things when there’s only a
vague sense of what the competitors are fighting for. Liddell,
Ortiz and De La Hoya have two months to tell that story, but it
won’t be the easiest of pitches.

Todd Martin has written about mixed martial arts since 2002 for
a variety of outlets, including CBSSports.com, SI.com, ESPN.com,
the Los Angeles Times, MMApayout.com, Fight Magazine and Fighting
Spirit Magazine. He has appeared on a number of radio stations,
including ESPN affiliates in New York and Washington, D.C., and
HDNet’s “Inside MMA” television show. In addition to his work at
Sherdog.com, he does a weekly podcast with Wade Keller at
PWTorch.com and blogs regularly at LaTimes.com. Todd received his
BA from Vassar College in 2003 and JD from UCLA School of Law in
2007 and is a licensed attorney. He has covered UFC, Pride,
Bellator, Affliction, IFL, WFA, Strikeforce, WEC and K-1 live
events. He believes deeply in the power of MMA to heal the world
and bring happiness to all of its people.